[UPDATED] UNC councillor crosses floor

UNC councillor Khublal Paltoo of St Augustine South/Piarco/St Helena Electoral District crossed the floor to the PNM side of the chamber at the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation during the corporations’ announcement phase of its statutory meeting on Tuesday.

Paltoo said his burgesses had instructed him to so do and to provide the necessary support for the PNM candidate in the upcoming local government election as a matter of principle. The election is set for December 2.

Corporation chairman Paul Leacock told Newsday: “Over the years he (Paltoo) has been very consistent with his acknowledgment that the opposition side of our councillors have been treated fairly, and therefore he felt, having been treated fairly we should deal with issues in a bi-partisan way and not take decisions to go against what the majority of council was doing when something was good.”

Leacock said Paltoo indicated to the chair that his burgesses had also encouraged him to join the PNM, “so he went ahead and crossed over on to our side physically and sat with us for the meeting.”

In a video posted on Facebook, Paltoo, who is in his third stint as councillor at the corporation, stated in the video that he had been mandated by his burgesses to support the PNM and to go over to their side. With that, he asked the chairman’s permission to so do, and with the consent he walked over to the other side of the table and took a seat next to the councillor for Auzonville/Tunapuna, Travis Williams.

Before doing so, Paltoo said: “The oath I took was to serve conscientiously and impartially. The voice of the people is the voice of God, and I’ve also been mandated by my burgesses with your permission to come across on that side.”

Reacting to the crossover, Kevan Gibbs, minority leader at the corporation said he was not surprised by Paltoo’s move. He said: “I know that he was upset because he was not chosen to run for the seat. Some people’s loyalty comes with a price, while some people will be where they want to be and Mr Paltoo’s membership came with strings attached. But that doesn’t worry me at all. I can safely say that seat will stay with the UNC.”

Leacock said, coming into the election period over the last six months, there had been some pressure on Paltoo to neither stand, put any commendation on the chair, nor be in agreement with the rest of the council.

Leacock said: “Even in the last statutory, they called a press conference rather than come to council to get the things that they wanted after the flood in the Bamboo, and he (Paltoo) felt that the right thing for them to do was to come to council and let us vote on whatever funds we needed to move around to ensure that they can get things for their burgesses.

"He would have made it clear that once it is a good thing he would support it and I think that is where they would have had some challenges.”

In a release from UNC PRO Anita Haynes issued Tuesday evening, she said it is unfortunate that Paltoo chose to take the action on the eve of a local government election.

She added, Paltoo was screened along with several other nominees for the electoral district, but the committee selected Richard Rampersad to contest the seat, "a person who brings energy, enthusiasm and commitment" and is expected to be supported by the UNC burgesses.

“The UNC remains committed to putting forward candidates that have demonstrated their willingness to serve the people of their communities, and work to improve their lives,” said Haynes.

On the crossing of the floor in a corporation, Leacock said: "I haven't seen any clear position in the Corporation Act."

The corporation is now 15 PNM and five UNC.

This story was originally published with the title "UNC councillor crosses floor in Tunapuna/Piarco corporation" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

UNC councillor Khublal Paltoo of the St Augustine South/Piarco/St Helena electoral district crossed the floor to the PNM side of the chamber at the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation during the announcements at its statutory meeting yesterday.

The councillor said his burgesses had instructed him to so do and to support the PNM candidate as a matter of principle.

Corporation chairman Paul Leacock told Newsday: “Over the years (Paltoo) has been very consistent with his acknowledgment that the opposition side of our councillors have been treated fairly, and therefore he felt, having been treated fairly, we should deal with issues in a bipartisan way and not take decisions to go against what the majority of council was doing when something was good.”

In a video posted on Facebook, Paltoo was seen saying he had been mandated by his burgesses to support the PNM and to go over to their side, and with that he asked the chairman’s permission to so do. When he was given consent, he walked over to the other side of the table and took a seat next to councillor for Auzonville/Tunapuna Travis Williams.

More on this as it becomes available.